Tuesday, 9 May 2017

Cheshire Craft Beer Review: Brainstorm from Spitting Feathers

Welcome to the Shed. I am even-star and this is The Beer in Review. Today's Cheshire craft beer review is for Brainstorm from Spitting Feathers.

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Brainstorm is a clear gold beer. Very butterscotch up front and fruity. Wasn't sure at first but it grew on me with a pleasant floral bitterness. A bit of lemon peel and elderflower.

I think I have only had one Spitting Feathers beer before this and that was a few years ago now. They are a fairly small concern brewing out of Chester with a couple of pubs in their estate. They raise their own meat for their pubs and use the spent grains from the brewing to feed their pigs and cows. They also grow a small amount of hops.

This circle economy model, where what would have been waste from the brewing process is used to power some sort of other food production, is becoming a more common model in the UK and is a good way to differentiate yourself. However, it isn't as though this is made clear at the bar and it would be difficult for your average hipster to demand sustainability information on each beer being served from the bar staff.

One has to assume that these sorts of initiatives have an altruistic basis in the small batch brewers who are taking a closer look at how beer can be made more environmentally friendly. Especially in contrast to bigger breweries. It takes 20 pints of water to create just one pint of beer and the grains used in the brewing process, that could otherwise have been used as a food source for humans, can just be thrown out for compost or even just chucked in a landfill to produce methane.

Smaller breweries, with greater ties to their communities, are more enthusiastic about taking the time to give back to the people who support their beer.

The Beer in Review is a blog about craft beer and real ale. Keep up with new posts and contact me with comments and questions on twitter or YouTube. I'd love to hear about your craft beer adventures and recommendations from your home town.